Saturday may 14th 2011

Today we woke up early in Shetland at the Saxa Vord hostel and traveled shortly to the Hermaness Nature Reserve. When we arrived it was about ten thirty a.m. It was cloudy and a little cold. I was wearing leggings, jeans, a thermal shirt, jacket and wind breaker. All we could see was uphill. While we were walking there was a baby sheep trying to get to the other side of the fence. An older man tried to help pick it up and bring it to it's mom but the sheep ran away. We carried on our walk because the baby was frightened. As we went on the walk we saw a lot of green and a lot of sheep, birds and wildlife. From a distance you could see the ocean and it was beautiful. As we kept on the path, we were afraid of the birds dive-bombing us because they are currently nesting. We walked uphill for what felt like forever and then we saw the water more clearly. As we walked, we could see cliffs and water from a distance. We approached the cliffs and it literally felt like we were at the end of the earth. From as high as we were we could see practically everything around us. If we looked straight at the ocean and saw land it would be Norway. We kept on the path and saw the northern most lighthouse. It was on top of a giant rock mass and was amazing to see. It took about an hour to walk back up the mountain and down to the small parking lot. Before we got down to the meeting place, we noticed the baby sheep was still on the wrong side of the fence. Katie, Megan and I decided that we should help. We tried to corer it and capture it, we also tried not scaring it and sitting there hoping it would get used to us and think we were safe. Neither of these techniques worked and ken and fellow class mates encouraged us to stop because we were mean for trying to help the sheep. It reminded me of the time at home when all 60 chickens were let out of the pen and I had to chase them around the yard until they were all back in the pen only to find out that they will naturally come in when it gets dark. We listened to our peers and hoped the owner would tend to his sheep soon with better techniques than ours. After this, we went back to the hostel and prepared for dinner. It was a pre-ordered group meal and I had ordered lamb. It wasn't good and it didn't help that I kept thinking about the baby sheep. After dinner, a group of older people and locals came to the hostel bar area for some traditional music. It was very interesting and talking to the locals made it even more interesting. One woman with fire engine red hair named Elizabeth was definitely the highlight as she went around telling people stories of her past. After that we went to bed.